


Silent Perusal

by Beejuice



Category: Scarecrow and Mrs. King
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:01:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24795838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beejuice/pseuds/Beejuice
Summary: This is a short filler for parts of the episode, Service Above and Beyond with a little reflection at the end.  What was it about Amanda's little black dress that had Lee distracted?
Kudos: 6





	Silent Perusal

Discreet Perusal

By: Beejuice

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Scarecrow and Mrs. King belong to Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Productions. The plot is mine.

Summary: This is a short season one filler for a couple of scenes in Service Above and Beyond in season 1, with a bit of reflection as well.

Italics in quotations indicate direct lines from the episode.

I want to send special thanks to my 'dream team' for all of your help!'Thanks Lanie, Raiz and Janet for taking time out of your busy lives to help! I struggled to get back to my third person roots!

"Uggh," Amanda let out an exasperated sound while scanning the park for any sign of Lee. She was running late having not been given much time to prepare for the evening with Lee's last-minute call for help. After hanging up with him, she had dashed upstairs to shower and rummage through the back of her closet for an appropriate dress after his impromptu call. She was supposed to have met him by the reflecting pool at 9:00 p.m. She was now 10 minutes late between getting ready and the Friday night traffic she encountered.

Finally, she spotted him leaning heavily against the side of his Porsche staring at his watch, she hurried over to him. As she carefully made her way to him, she was quite certain he'd seen her. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, but didn't acknowledge her presence with a nod or a smile, which was something she was starting to notice from working with this man. She was finding, since starting to work for the Agency, that she was able to notice things that she never thought to look for in the past. In her normal day-to-day life, there had never been a need. Sure, she needed to know the signs when one of the boys were trying to hide something from her, but things were different now that she was working with a spy. It was like all her "mom instincts" had been kicked into high gear. You can learn and become quite comfortable with peoples' idiosyncrasies over time, and Amanda felt she was getting better and better at reading Lee's body language and had noticed his mood was so changeable at any given moment. Whether it was a look, an idea, or a thought, she was confident she was starting to know this man a little bit more as time progressed and they spent time working together.

The puzzling part of the entire situation was why? Why hadn't he acknowledged her arrival? Was there something or someone nearby that would make him pretend not to know her? She glanced around but didn't see anything. Was he angry about something? Was her dress not enough? Or was it too much? She could feel a glimmer of annoyance; he was the one who wouldn't give out any details over the phone – how was she supposed to know what he considered a nice dress? Was he angry? Or could it have been the outfit she had chosen. Was it too dressy, or too flashy? Was it too revealing? She wanted to know why he was behaving this way. So, as she approached him, she began speaking right away. "Sorry I'm late. Do I look alright?" Amanda was momentarily confused as she looked at him. Lee appeared to be at a loss for words and she'd never seen him quite as out of sorts as he was at that moment. She waited a moment before repeating her question.

Lee looked at her once nonchalantly then immediately forgot the question as he scanned her body from head to toe. He'd spotted her out of his peripheral vision searching for him before she approached. Watching her unobtrusively, he had been quite intrigued by the view. Her long, black evening gown had thin straps, accentuating her long neck and creamy shoulders. The fitted waist emphasized all of her curves in just the right places. It was cut dangerously low in the front and a wave of something hit him in the pit of his stomach. He couldn't attribute a particular feeling except apprehension towards her approaching form, but he didn't know why. She wore a diamond solitaire around her neck, with dangling sparkly earrings, which luckily drew his eyes north, back towards her face.

Unfortunately, his libido had other ideas as he caught a faint whiff of her perfume. He could detect hints of vanilla, lavender, and lilacs. The low-cut neckline of the dress, her contoured shoulder blades that were visible when she had turned to the side and, of course her long, shapely legs he knew were hiding under its skirt continued drawing his mind into dangerous territory. He didn't like having those types of thoughts about a woman like Amanda, a wholesome mother, with children and a normal life. He had no right to have thoughts like that and felt ashamed. He pushed those thoughts aside so he could concentrate on whatever question she had asked him. He only knew it was a question of some sort from the tone of her voice and her quizzical brow. "Huh?"

"I said do I look alright?" Amanda spread out her arms so he could get a good look at her. He didn't need another look. He was well aware of not only what she was wearing, but how alluring she looked in her beautiful black dress.

"Yeah, fine, just fine." He pretended to do a quick once-over. Little did she know he'd perused her body from head to toe and was trying to reconcile his impure thoughts and feelings with where his mind should have been at the moment, his case. During the remainder of their conversation, he avoided looking at her, under the guise of being a perfectly trained spy. 'When conversing with another agent, or in this case, a low-level helper, you never looked directly at the person you were speaking with,' he reminded himself. He didn't dare tempt himself by taking another look at his housewife helper in that dress. It was too dangerous. His mind couldn't process the fact that he was seeing her as a beautiful and alluring woman. Instead, to distract himself, he went into full agent mode and began telling her details about the event.  
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The party was in full swing by the time they had arrived. Men were dressed in their tuxedos, women in flowing evening gowns. The mansion was beautifully decorated with crystal chandeliers, a ballroom, and decorated walls. The hired help dressed in chicken suits while serving drinks in crystal wine goblets, advertising for the company, Quickie Chickie Snack Shacks. A blue banner adorned the main entrance wall. The band was dressed in red suits and supplied an array of live music of different genres for the guests. Everyone was dancing with the exception of Lee and Amanda. Lee nursed his drink searching for the man he was to meet with while Amanda looked out among the crowd admiring the dancers. As she leaned over to talk to Lee, he turned to face her.

"Are we allowed to dance while we look for your contact? I do a pretty mean Cha-Cha." She waved her arm gesturing towards the dancing couples. She was bored and felt a bit awkward simply standing at the bar with him. She thought it would look much more natural if they were dancing as well.

Lee listened to her request and would have obliged her with a dance if it weren't for that dress or his earlier ungentlemanly thoughts about her in it. Before he could stop the image, it appeared back in his head along with the feeling of her in his arms on that dance floor. He took a deep breath to clear his thoughts. He scanned the room briefly before informing Amanda of his plans.

"I have to leave the room for a few minutes."

"What am I supposed to do?" Amanda knew nobody at this event nor had he introduced her to any guests, which left her feeling a bit exposed and overwhelmed. She was definitely out of her element.

He smiled at her. "Keep having a good time," he replied as he smoothly exited the room. He heard her exasperated huff as he left, but knew it was best that he keep his mind on the task at hand. As he began his search, he recalled the last time he'd danced with her. Of course the situation had been completely different. He'd hardly known Amanda at the time and he had no idea he'd ever have to see her again. It had also helped that she'd been wearing a sweater vest, her hair had been a bit messy pinned to the top of her head and she'd looked like a common, everyday housewife. There was no danger in dancing with a housewife. There had been no danger at that time, but now that she was going to be around all the time, Lee didn't want to blur the lines when it came to their relationship. He had to continue to work with her now and that meant maintaining a strictly professional relationship with her. He'd pegged her from the start. She was a good, wholesome homemaker who would only be happy with a good, suburban family man. He definitely was not that person.

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After the case ended, Lee returned home after checking on Amanda. He'd told her he wanted to make sure she was feeling okay after her trip to the hospital. That was partly true, but he knew there was more to it and he needed some time to figure it out. He shook the images of her lifeless body in his arms out of his head. He'd been truly terrified she wasn't going to make it, and it had affected him more than he cared to admit, even to himself. He'd grown closer to her during this case and wasn't quite sure how it happened. Sitting down heavily upon his couch with a scotch in his hand to relax him, his mind ran through the entire case and all of the events that had transpired. He wondered what the catalyst was that had changed his opinion of her, and simply couldn't put his finger on it. She could have been killed. In this business, he was used to that possibility for himself. But he was the one who had gotten her into this, and if she had died, her two boys would have been left without a mother. That responsibility had hit him to the core as he knocked back the golden liquid to ease his conscious.

He thought a bit more about James Delano trying to feed her lines with their dinner to get her into bed. That simply made him angry. He recalled how she'd accused him of being jealous which was totally absurd. If anything, Amanda should have been grateful and thanked him for looking out for her. That's what friends do. That's what it was, he reasoned with himself. She'd looked out for him in the past and he had done the same for her during this case. They were friends. It was as simple as that. It had nothing to do with that black dress or the fact that he could have lost her during the case.

Lee stood up and strode to his rolltop desk. Pulling out his black book, he began flipping through the pages. "I need a date! It's been way too long and I'm not thinking clearly. I'm not thinking clearly at all."


End file.
